Peer pressure usually has a negative connotation, but in senior Eric Wang’s case, it resulted in one of his best decisions during high school: joining Bombay in the Bay.

Wang decided to take the plunge in his sophomore year, after his close friend and alumna Kaitna Shankar persuaded him to participate. Shankar and 2011 alumna Esha Roy were performing a singing act and asked their fellow choir student to help them on stage. The next year, Wang took on dancing.

“At first, I was like, ‘I’m not Indian! I don’t want to wear a kurta pajama*!’” Wang said. “But Kaitna was like, ‘trust me, you’ll be fine,’ and that’s how I got started.”

Indian Cultural Awareness Club president and senior Sneha Shivkumar said that Bombay in the Bay “is definitely not an exclusive activity. A lot of seniors last year did it, and it’s pretty normal.”

Sophomore Katherine Sun, who is Chinese, had a similar experience to Wang’s when she joined her Indian friends in Bombay in the Bay.

“I thought I might be left out because I’m not Indian, but I never feel like that,” she said.
This is Sun’s first year participating in the show.
“I just did it for fun, and it’s great,” Sun added.

Although Wang is also not of Indian descent, he feels like he is a part of the Indian community.
“Sometimes they make Indian jokes that I don’t get, but for the most part, I’m always included,” he said. “Now that it’s my senior year, the show has become part of my life.”

Wang is enthusiastic about his third year participating in the event, to say the least.
“It’s probably one of the things I look forward to most in the entire school year,” he said. “The dancing is so much fun.”

Wang tried to convince his sister, sophomore Vanessa Wang, to join the show, but she protested that she was not Indian.

Wang’s response?
“That’s totally not a problem.”

*kurta pajama: traditional long, un-collared shirt over cotton pants